In Punch-Drunk Love (2002), Paul Thomas Anderson applies a unique creative
process that reveals the very inner workings of enunciation in the film. His filmic approach
functions to distance the spectator from the film and, to various degrees, challenges the
spectator to question the codes that create an aesthetic of illusion. Drawing on Christian
Metz’s abstract approach to enunciation, this thesis proposes to analyse the filmic
enunciation of Anderson’s film. By means of this theoretical approach, we become aware
that the enunciation of the film stimulates the spectator into realizing that the implied
meaning of the enunciation is one that can be understood within its own self. The “who”
and the “what” are no longer questions that are answered from the “outside”. The “who” is
the film and the “what” resides in it. What we are observing is the self–reflexive nature of
enunciation.